A bandit bit the rings off a Laing Avenue housewife’s fingers during a home invasion on Tuesday night but he was arrested after she spotted him in the bank less than a day after.
Housewife Faye Lewis and her two children were on Tuesday night the victims of the attack, during which two men robbed them of around $900,000 in jewels, cash and other items. During the attack, one of the men used his teeth to rip rings from Lewis’ fingers.
A traumatised Lewis told Stabroek News that yesterday morning she visited the bank to inform of cards lost in the attack, and she spotted a man who she suspected to be one of the robbers.
The woman said that the man kept looking her way, and, since she was not sure whether he was the perpetrator, she quietly exited the building to where her daughter was waiting outside. “I told her to come inside and look [in the area that the man was standing] and see if that is the same man from last night. When she went in, she said yes mommy it’s him,” Lewis said.
She quickly exited the bank and related her discovery to a friend, who then alerted a police officer who was nearby, and the man was arrested.
Crime Chief Seelall Persaud yesterday said the man was still in custody.
The attack on Lewis’ home occurred around 8pm on Tuesday, while she was cleaning her house and her 13-year-old daughter was washing clothes. She explained that her daughter was using the washing machine, which is situated close to the back door in the house, when she noticed two men approaching and alerted her mother.
Upon hearing this, Lewis, who had arrived by the back door, turned and saw that two men, one armed with a gun, had entered her Laing Avenue yard and were approaching her.
The woman said she tried to shut and lock the grill door leading into her kitchen area, but she was hindered by a curtain and the men quickly forced open the door and pushed her to the ground.
Lewis said that while she was on the ground in a sitting position, one of the bandits immediately began yanking at the three gold chains and a silver chain that she was wearing at the time.
As he was doing this, she said, the other perpetrator, who held the weapon, pointed it at her and looked on, as she sat crying and begging for them to spare her life.
“I told them please don’t kill me, I have my two children to live for,” she said.
‘Bite them off’
Lewis’ assailant next turned to the ten gold and silver rings Lewis was wearing on her fingers and began pulling them off. With the man finding it hard to get two of the rings off, she got up to assist by using soap powder and water.
She was unsuccessful and the armed bandit said “’man you taking too long with tha’” and instructed his colleague to “’bite them off.’”
Lewis was then shoved back to the ground and the unarmed bandit, following his partner’s suggestion, took the woman’s finger into his mouth and bit the ring off, tearing a piece of her skin in the process.
The bandit repeated this on the next finger until the other ring was in his possession.
The distraught woman said the men then began asking her “way de Euro and the res’ o’ gold deh?” This question, she explained, made her even more suspicious since her brother had just a week ago arrived in Guyana from French Guiana and departed on Saturday last.
After finding that she had none of the two requested items, the bandits then asked Lewis the whereabouts of her purse, which they carted off. This purse, she said, contained three Scotia Bank cards, a Western Union Card, $26,000 cash, identification cards, and other important documents.
She said too that while they were confiscating the bag, the men also took possession of her blood sugar tester, which was nearby. They also took her phones then “walked out peacefully.”
This newspaper understands that throughout the entire episode, Lewis’ daughter hid under a bed, while her nine-year-old son, who had been folding clothes in the bedroom prior to the incident, hid under a sheet.
When this newspaper visited the family yesterday, the two children were still traumatised by the experience. Lewis said that immediately following the incident, her daughter came out from hiding and summoned the police, while she [Lewis] went out and informed a neighbour.
The ranks, she said, arrived in less than fifteen minutes and took statements.
Lewis has been living in Laing Avenue since the age of 19 and said that this is the first time she has experienced such and incident. “The way I’m feeling now, I could just move out,” she said.
